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We Made a Choice, Now What? Romans 13:1-7 a Very Interesting

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We Made a Choice, Now What? Romans 13:1-7 a Very Interesting We Made a Choice, Now What? Romans 13:1-7 A very interesting news stories occurred some twenty-two years ago. For pastor Paul Revere, getting into Heaven was easy. Getting out was a problem. Reverend Paul Revere, of the non, “one if by land and two if by sea” fame, was the founder of a 34 acre kingdom just outside the state capital of Salem Oregon. He called it the Embassy of Heaven and sought to separate from secular government. Its members professed to be literal citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven and reject any ties to what they refer to as "worldly governments". The organization issued its own identity documents (including passports and drivers licenses), business licenses, motor vehicle title certificates and license plates. The last time Revere, who by the way whose legal name is still Craig Douglas Fleshm drove his white car out of the 34-acre Kingdom of Heaven on August 20, 1994, wound up in jail for displaying Heaven license plates and carrying a Heaven- issued driver's license. State officials didn’t heed Revere's claims of celestial citizenship. Nor did they believe the forested estate belonged to God and was thus exempt from county tax rolls. The courts of Marion County Oregon had another view – and eventually seized the land in 1997 and sold it at auction. That wasn’t the end of Paul Revere. The original Revere was said to have followed the famous “one if by land and two if by sea” comment with, “and I on the opposite shore will be”, decided to move toward the opposite shore of the United States but settled in Minnesota not too awful far from our own Ken Raasch’s place. 1 In 2012, Minnesota state insurance regulators ordered the Embassy of Heaven Church to stop making what the regulators called misrepresentations, using the name "Mutual Assurance," in connection with the sale of insurance in Minnesota. The regulators asserted that a type of auto insurance promoted by the group is bogus, and that the group had no license to sell insurance in Minnesota. Embassy of Heaven spokesman Paul Revere responded, asserting that the group does not sell insurance. Revere was also quoted as saying, "We don't operate in Minnesota.... We operate in the Kingdom of Heaven. Anyway – this man fell into a common misconception among some Christians – or folks claiming to be Christian – that is, as members of God’s kingdom we don’t have to obey the laws of this world. In Chapter 12 of Romans, Paul the Apostle gave us a “quick start” guide for how the individual is to live with God, with himself, and with those around us. Now in Chapter 13 he talks about how the Christian, with a renewed mind, is supposed to live in society. Not only does he say that we should obey the laws of the land – but obey even when those laws don’t make sense. In the process he reveals principals for getting along in the world. Lets begin in Romans chapter 13, verse 1, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Okay – two problems already. First – we must “submit” to the “governing authorities.” The word “submit” is the Greek word used dozens of times in the New Testament. It’s a military term, primarily, and it means “to rank under.” In the military, they train and train and train so that when an order is given, the troops respond perfectly without having to think and rearrange 2 and figure it out – otherwise the enemy would be upon them before they could get organized. This happens by ranks – the general gives the “big picture” order, which his officers interpret according to their section of the force and pass it down accordingly to the enlisted men. The General might say: “we need to take this area in order to rout the enemy.” By the time that gets to the private its: “Charge up this hill and take out that machine gun nest.” With everyone doing their part the battle is hopefully won as the machine works with precision. If the private decides – “no, I think it would be better if I stayed here and took a nap” the squad’s task would be more difficult – and if everyone decided in their own way what to do – the General’s orders would not be fulfilled. So in society we are to submit to the government. When the government passes a law that says “don’t drive over 65 miles an hour” then we should submit to that, we should obey that law – as I’m sure we all do. If we all decided that speed laws weren’t a good idea for us and drove 100 miles an hour then there would be a terrible rash of accidents and people would die. It’s not important whether you believe that 65 is the right speed – but if it’s the law, then we should obey. Now, you say, what about laws that conflict with God’s character? Glad you asked. In the military there is such a thing as an illegal order. There are processes whereby a soldier can make a commanding officer prove the legality of an order – like ordering genocide, for instance. Well, in society, if a law directly conflicts with the laws of God, then we have to obey God. For instance – when the Jews told Peter and John not speak the name of Jesus anymore – he said in 3 Acts 4:19, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” But, for the most part, we aren’t going to see this kind of thing – and we should do our best to “rank under” the laws of society so that we are all safer and cared for. So what about bad rulers list whomever you want, preferably someone long ago, far away and dead. Do you mean God sets them up too? Yes – but it doesn’t mean that they are good, or that they are saved – but God will use them as pawns. Thank God we don’t serve a dictator – and remember that Paul wrote this in Roman times – under terrible dictators. Paul makes this obedience he talks about even more imperative – listen to this, here is verse 2 of our scripture passage today, Romans 13:2, “Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Why is this? Paul then makes it clear in verse 3, “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.” See – so God establishes earthly authority to punish the wrong doers and reward those who do right. If there were no civil authority, do you think those bent on doing evil would waste one minute creating total anarchy in society? Our problem is that we want it both ways – we want to be protected, but we don’t want anyone messing in our business. Read on: “Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” You might ask, does that mean that if I break the law and get punished the government is God’s servant? Isn’t the world under the control of Satan? Isn’t it evil? Well – I’ll tell you this – 4 at the beginning Paul said God sets up governments – and here government is God’s servant when punishing wrongdoers. It doesn’t mean that government takes the place of God’s judgment on the sinner – but God made governments to help people get along. Let’s continue to verse 5, “Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.” So it’s even more than just obeying because you are afraid of being punished – Paul says it is a matter of conscience. What does this mean? We should obey because it is the right thing to do – to have the attitude – “well no one’s looking now so I can do whatever I want” is I think contrary to the kind of person God is making us. Now our laws are filled with “don’ts – don’t kill, don’t steal – but Jesus said that the law is summed up in two concepts – both of which are positives – love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we would follow those principals all the time, even when the “law” isn’t looking, we don’t have any problems. Of course – that doesn’t apply to paying taxes – does it or doesn’t it? Look what we are instructed in verse 6, “This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” Yaah – Paul says we should pay our taxes – plain and simple. Jesus said the same thing – “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” In a larger sense I think what Paul is saying is that government is not the enemy – but God’s servant.
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